Sandbox games are quickly becoming the bane of the demo-loving public. Open worlds just don't separate into bite-sized pieces well. Take Far Cry 2, for instance, which game director Clint Hocking has confirmed will have no playable demo before release due to the staggering amount of gameplay packed into every nook and cranny of the game. What, can't we just use invisible walls?

"One reason is, even if we were to give out what you played today - even if we put invisible walls around it and said, here's the demo, you can go anywhere you like inside these walls and play it how you want - that's potentially right there eight-to-ten hours of gameplay. I don't know too many people who are willing to give away a 12-hour game for free."

How about really tiny invisible walls? Maybe with a time limit? No? As gamers get more and more used to having demos available before games are released, the sandbox game devs are going to have to adjust. Perhaps just give gamers a square of land, a selection of weapons, and a target range? We can work this out folks!

No Far Cry 2 demo planned [Eurogamer]

July is Ninja Month! So says Xbox Live, which now randomly sports a Ninja Live ad which takes you to ninja paradise. Well, not exactly ninja paradise. In ninja paradise, you'd all be dead. Instead, you get links to ninja movies and television shows, ninja games, ninja style, and this particular Ninja Gaiden II page, which displays the dates for new Ninja Gaiden II content. July 11th sees the release of NGII Skull videos, and then on the 25th the game gets its Mission Mode on righteously.

I personally want to thank Microsoft for making Ninja Month every bit as special as they did Pirate Month. Oh wait, there wasn't a Pirate Month, now was there? FACE!

Color is your friend — or so we've heard. But color is totally BFFs with Midway's This Is Vegas, a game we doubt will ever be brushed off by the gaming set for its tendency to dip too much into the browner portions of the spectrum. This Is Vegas has more color per pixel than, well, just about any PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 release that we can think of. Oh wait, just remembered Kameo. That was a colorful nightmare, wasn't it?

A paltry three new screens away you in the gallery below. Do try to make the most of them.

Yes, Diablo III is going to be much more vivid and vibrant than its predecessors, a fact that has some fans signing a petition against the shinier, happier art direction - now with over fifteen thousand signatures. Tracey John over at MTV Multiplayer spoke with Diablo III lead producer Keith Lee about the during the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Paris this past weekend, who defended the move towards a brighter, more colorful Diablo.

“One of the things that we considered when we were working on the visuals for ‘Diablo III’ is the fact that color is your friend. We feel that color actually helps to create a lot of highlights in the game so that there is contrast. A great analogy is like in ‘Lord of the Rings’ — not everything is dark. It allows you to see what a creepy dungeon can be like but if everything is dark it doesn’t allow you to have a lot of contrast.”

Lee also explains that they want players excited to enter and explore new areas, rather that simply provide the same dark environments over and over again.

Lee does admit that fan feedback is a major factor in how Blizzard develops titles. It'll be interesting to see what impact - if any - the petition has on the development of the game.

‘Diablo III’ Producer Justifies Controversial Art Direction: ‘Color Is Your Friend’ [MTV Multiplayer]

$299 Price Drop Xbox 360 Is Refurbish? (Bwah?) [Updated]

Previously, we posted a Kmart ad indicating a price-drop in the Xbox 360 line-up. The ad, purported to hit July 6, shows that the model that comes equipped with a 20GB hard drive, formerly known as the 'Pro' version, will be priced at $299 US. That's a $50 price drop from its current MSRP. A Gamestop employee has tipped us with what looks like further confirmation that the lower priced Xbox 360 is hitting. Pictured is the $299.99 Xbox 360 SKU in the Gamestop inventory screen. While the tipster isn't sure what the bundle contains, we imagine it will be everything that's in the "Pro" version. Here's the kicker: Apparently, this cheaper Xbox 360 is a refurbished console as the product description reads:

Microsoft Xbox 360 Pro, Refurb 299.99

Update: Several Gamestop employees have altered us that the retailer has been running this refurb deal for the past month or so, thus negating anything it has to do with the rumored price-drop Xbox 360. Nothing to see here! Move along, move along.

Preserving Our History: Good Games Never Go Out of Style

"I Love the World" of Video Gaming

If you're getting dominated in TF2, ganked in AoC, pwned in Halo 3; feeling blue after finishing MGS4 or down in the dumps because your 360 RRoD'd — or if you're just feeling awesome and want to feel even better about this crazy habit we have, which forces us to sit inside for hours on a perfectly good day otherwise, then just watch this video that ThatsMrOffDutyNinjasent us, and sing along.

This is a parody of the Discovery Channel's "I Love the World" promo, and that's the original soundtrack to which Gamers Prodigy brilliantly matched the game footage. It's fabulously hilarious and sentimental at the same time. For me, at least.

There's at least one cameo here that's in your wheelhouse ... boom-de-yada, boom-de-yada, boom-de-yada ... Everyone give the commenter to your left a big hug.

"I Love the World" Video Game Edition [hosted by CollegeHumor, created by Gamers Prodigy]

Today, Sony Computer Entertainment exec Kaz Hirai announced "Life with PlayStation" for the PS3. During the presentation, the "Life" was demoed for the audience for the first time — the service shows the Earth, and users can access current news and weather for locations around the world. It's possible to even pull up the full article from the headline. Users can also set background music while looking at the Earth, checking the weather and the world news. Click through pics below to see it in action.

PS3新規コンテンツ「Life」 [Dengeki Online]

Nintendo Responds To Song Swiping Lawsuit

Earlier this month, Nintendo of America was on the receiving end of a lawsuit from Hollywood production company Morgan Creek Productions, which alleged copyright infringement over the use of music from the movie True Romance in a TV spot for GameCube game Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door.

The suit was quickly withdrawn by Morgan Creek... mysteriously!

It's really not that mysterious. According to a statement from Nintendo, the whole thing has been settled, with ad agency Leo Burnett reminding Morgan Creek that it had already entered into a music licensing agreement with the production company. Looks like all that was required was a "Sorry 'bout that!" The full statement follows.

More on the Playstation-edu Initiative

The Peter Moore Challenge

EA Sports head Peter Moore is not a man to mince words. That's why we loved him so when he was at Microsoft, he cuts through the BS and gets straight to the point.

In a recent post on his blog over at It's In The Game, Moore talked up his new studio alluding that EA Sports is primed to have one of the best years in its history. In particular Moore sings the praises of NASCAR, NBA LIVE, Madden and NCAA Football. He's so sure that this season is going to be unrivaled, in fact, that he's promising to get a new tattoo if they don't deliver.

Big talk Moore, but lets put a little reality into this pie-in-the-sky promise. Why not say that if you don't have an overall Metacritic increase (yes I hate review scores) on all four of those games you've failed to deliver and it's time to ink up? We've even found this swell logo for your possible future use. Let us know.

Not Resting on our Laurels [Peter Moore's Official Blog]

Ready At Dawn Is Serious About Dropping The PSP

Daxter and God of War: Chains of Olympus developer Ready At Dawn was dead serious when it said it was moving on from PSP development. Proof is in the form of the boxing up and shipping out of dozens of PSP development kits and the continued teasing of what's in store after the Japanese release of the PSP version of God of War. With three solid games under its belt, we're appropriately psyched about where the dev is going next.

Ready At Dawn News

Iceland. It's where all the cool kids go to have a summit. Reagan and Gorbachev rapped about nukes there in 1985; 20 years later, the Supreme Metal Council condemned the overuse of the devil horns hand-signal. And now something billing itself as EVE Online's democratically elected government will meet there, probably because it's too far for Something Awful to show up and grief the shit out of it.

Sony Trains Future Engineers With PlayStation-edu

Sony is always on the prowl for engineers and programmers with a familiarity with their hardware, but they haven't exactly made it easy to get your hands on a development kit in the past. That all changes now as SCEA introduces the PlayStation-edu program, which focuses on familiarizing you engineers and programmers with the PlayStation hardware.

Qualifying institutions (college level and above) will be given a chance to purchase PSP and PlayStation 2 development kits complete with the hardware, dev software, and SDK, along with demo codes and samples so teachers can illustrate how the hardware works to students. The goal here is to generate a fresh crop of college graduates armed with the knowledge they need to create on SCEA hardware.

Interested parties can hit the link below for contact information, and if you are currently in a game programming or computer architecture class, start bugging the hell out of your professor so you too can get your hands on a PlayStation 2 with the word TOOL on the side in big letters.

PlayStation-edu [The Official PlayStation Blog]

This footage was taken at a recent SCE New Zealand press event. In the men's bathroom. It's...just...yeah.

Sony’s Automated Potty-Mouth [Geekpulp]

The History of RPGs: The Game List

The History of RPGs: A Reading List

Gaming Into Adulthood